HBA-NRS H.B. 2341 77(R) BILL ANALYSIS Office of House Bill AnalysisH.B. 2341 By: Noriega County Affairs 4/8/2001 Introduced BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Currently, the union leadership of the Harris County Deputies Organization (HCDO) may utilize legislative leave to petition governmental bodies with the permission of the sheriff. However, current legislative leave statutory provisions do not allow employees to donate hours of their vacation or accumulated overtime to HCDO. Therefore, all required hourly reimbursements for approved legislative leave that is utilized by HCDO must be repaid to Harris County in cash. House Bill 2341 allows members of HCDO to voluntarily donate up to two hours of vacation time or accumulated overtime per month to a legislative leave time bank established by the local government. RULEMAKING AUTHORITY It is the opinion of the Office of House Bill Analysis that this bill does not expressly delegate any additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, department, agency, or institution. ANALYSIS House Bill 2341 amends the Local Government Code to provide that an employee in a county with a population of 2.8 million or more is entitled to legislative leave without pay to appear before or to petition a governmental body during a regular or special session. To be eligible for legislative leave, an employee must submit a written application to the sheriff not later than the 30th day before the date the employee intends to begin the legislative leave. The application must indicate the length of the requested leave and state that the employee is willing to reimburse the county for any wages, pension, or other costs the county will incur as a result of the leave. The bill authorizes the sheriff to require an employee to reimburse the county for all costs incurred by the county and associated with the employee's legislative leave. Not later than the 30th day after the date the sheriff receives the application, the bill requires the sheriff to notify the employee in writing of the amount of money required to reimburse the county for the costs the county will incur. The bill requires the sheriff to grant legislative leave to an employee unless an emergency exists or granting the leave will result in an insufficient number of employees to carry out normal functions of the department. The bill authorizes another employee of equal rank to volunteer to work in the applicant's place if granting the leave will result in an insufficient number of employees to carry out normal functions of the department. The bill requires legislative leave granted to an employee to attend a session of the United States Congress to be granted for a period not to exceed 30 percent of the applicant's total annual working days during each year in which leave is requested. The bill authorizes an employee to donate not more than two hours for each month of accumulated vacation time or compensatory time to the legislative leave time account of an employee organization. The bill provides that an employee must authorize the donation in writing on a form provided by the employee organization and approved by the sheriff. A request to use for legislative leave purposes the time in an employee organization's legislative leave time account must be in writing and submitted to the county by the president or the equivalent officer of the employee organization or by that officer's designee. The bill requires the sheriff to account for the time donated to the legislative leave time account and used from the account. The bill prohibits an employee from using for legislative leave purposes more than 2,080 hours from its legislative leave time account in a calendar year. EFFECTIVE DATE On passage, or if the Act does not receive the necessary vote, the Act takes effect September 1, 2001.